The Master's degree: "all I need to do is write it up..."

What is the Master’s degree for?  I have strong opinions about this, and I know that some of my colleagues do not agree with me.  First and foremost, a Master’s degree is about learning basic research skills related to one’s field of interest.  Think I am wrong?  How confident are you that undergraduate programs prepare students to do independent research?  Despite students who are rare gems, undergraduate programs rarely focus on research skills, except in the most rudimentary sense.  A Master's degree represents the first rigorous attempt at independent research for most students.  A thesis or project is a culmination of this process.  That such research is original is important, but more important is that a Master’s degree is a record that a student can undertake, synthesize, and complete a medium- to large-scale research project.  This is so because juggling the balls required to finish a project is difficult.  I have colleagues who argue that a Master’s degree is a mini-doctoral degree, in which the originality and value of the research must be very high.  Respectfully, I disagree for several reasons.  There are several common roadblocks to finishing a Master’s degree that must be overcome first.

The first one of these is that there are too many Master’s programs.  What this means is that there are some that offer very loosely structured curricula with a limited core focus in which students suffer from aimlessness.  To be productive and unique a program must have a focus; this is especially so for smaller programs.  Our Master’s program is in Applied Geography and our sister program in anthropology here is Applied Anthropology.  Both programs have carved out niches, and thus provide productive experiences for students.  In my opinion, programs must continually work on their focus to keep up with the needs of society.  Aimless programs are tough on students.

A second roadblock stems from the fact that more people are attempting to get Master’s degrees.  Applicant pools are crowded with students with a range of skills and abilities; many of these applicants are simply not prepared to do research.  But they think they are ready for a Master’s program, and this illusion is a barrier to moving forward because these students tend to be resistant to receiving criticism.  Students whose undergraduate degrees did not prepare them to do research clog Master’s programs across the country because they are given the impression that being accepted to a program means they are ready to succeed (or have already succeeded). Being accepted is just the start; students will acquire important skills during the program.  Depending on the student’s level of experience, maturity, and ability their Master’s degree will range from smooth to rocky.  As one of my colleagues has eloquently stated, in undergraduate programs, students should be “learning to learn.”  Students who adopt this approach early on will be much better off in graduate school.

A third roadblock, and I think the most important one, is the belief that the “writing up” part is the easy part during graduate studies.  I will be so bold as to say, this is much greater than an illusion, it is a socially approved lie that students tell to themselves, to each other, and to their professors.  It is simply not true, despite the fact that it feels reassuring.  Amassing background research and analyzing materials is the easy part!  The hard part is framing a research question, following it through to its logical outcome (negative or positive), communicating results in narrative form, discussing the implications of those results, and integrating those implications into a conclusion that relates back to the research question and background information.  In other words, “writing it up” is the hard part, and this is why some students flounder for years analyzing, reanalyzing, et cetera.  

Why is this so?  I believe it relates to the fact that during writing, research becomes independent.  A complete draft will be fully criticized, which is the purpose of having major professors and committees.  Students range in their response to this challenge from mild discomfort to abject terror.  It is overcoming this hurdle that distinguishes the finished graduate student from the unfinished one (whether or not the unfinished student agrees: how would she/he know?!).  

So, what is a Master’s degree for?  It represents a dry run on doing independent research.  The primary hurdles of becoming qualified researchers have less to do with originality than they do with overcoming fear.  Taking criticism, constructive or otherwise, is uncomfortable.  It takes a lot of practice to get the best out of being criticized, and the process is essential to acquiring the skills to synthesize a large research project into a meaningful written product.  For these reasons, I do not think that a Master’s thesis or project should always be a great piece of work (some will be, obviously).  It should be a fairly large project that relates to well-stated questions that synthesizes a research problem from start to finish.  The old adage “the only good thesis is a finished one” is true!